Carbon fiber felt as a novel sorbent for the easy detection of environmental pollutants: Application to the analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Herein, carbon fiber felt (CFF) having interwoven carbon fibers with unique properties, including high porosity, simple functionalization process, excellent adsorptive capacity, and easy operation was introduced as an efficient solid-phase microextraction sorbent . CFF was initially treated in an acidic environment resulting in AT−CFF as an adsorptive platform for the preconcentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Due to the cruciality of PAHs in human health and environmental protection, AT−CFF was used to extract them from water, rice, and soil samples and analyzed by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Ultraviolet detection (HPLC−UV(. The various extraction parameters were optimized. The morphology, structure, and elemental composition of the prepared sorbent were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE−SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT−IR), energy-dispersive X − ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Brunauer-Emmett−Teller (BET) analysis. The target analytes linear response (LR) was in the range of 0.005–500 ng mL –1 , with limits of detection (LOD) ranging from 0.001 to 0.015 ng mL –1 . Furthermore, the sorbent reproducibility preparation as well as its intra-day and inter-day repeatability operation (n = 5) were estimated by relative standard deviations (RSDs) values and one-way ANOVA results in detail. The method's validity was examined with the results of the recovery tests in two−level specking values. • CFF is a cost-effective sorbent for multidisciplinary use in chemical analysis. • High-performance CFF-based sorbent was only provided by a simple acidic treatment. • The prepared sorbent indicated high chemical stability and good extraction efficiency. • The CFF-based sorbent was introduced to extend solid-phase microextraction processes. • Analysis of PAHs was performed without the need to centrifuge or magnetic extraction.